“Ouroboros” is the circular symbol of a serpent eating its own tail; its meaning
suggests beginnings and endings, seamlessly joined. For this libretto, I wanted
to explore these abstract notions on a human scale, through the lens of the loss
of a loved one, and to consider the question: What shape does grief take when
framed within a ring of constant rebirth? — Nathaniel Bellows

Ouroboros, by Sarah Kirkland Snider, setting original text by me (below); commissioned by Vision Into Art and the Young People’s Chorus of New York, for BAM Next Wave Festival 2015; premiered by Young People’s Chorus of New York; ACME; Ian Rosenbaum, marimba; David Cossin, crotales, at BAM Next Wave Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY, November 4-7, 2015.

Ouroboros

Does this mean  
there is no end?  
A life will fold   
as time extends  
I stand above     
the world you’re in         
a loss a life        
regained again   

Can you find me
where you are?   
Outside the earth
beyond the stars 
the ring of clouds
the serpent’s arc 
the ancient child 
to stop to start    

It had no need for eyes    
no ears no foot or face     
it moved within itself      
an inward turning shape.  
I saw the curving spine    
I heard the jaw release     
devouring itself  
an endless hungering

The scales split under fang
the gag and pull of throat
what once was out
now goes in
the tail the tongue
engulfed

A sun bestows its heat
a whorl of stars its ice
rings will ring it round
in bands of stone in flight.
You sang the song of life
the underpin of death
joined in seamless cloth
that wrap us all like breath

What distance from
this place we know?
What world beyond
this cobalt globe?
Where time unwinds
where pain is eased
and life repeats
in wreaths of leaves

Should I believe
you will return?  
The loyal dove   
the ruined fern   
a coiled cord      
arrive return       
oh wondrous way
all circular